So I gotta replace my Opti (surprise surprise) and everything is fairly straightforward until I go to pull off the balancer.

I take out the three bolts but the balancer won't budge. So I get out the ol' pully puller but it won't fit between the balancer and the radiator.

Then I look closer and realize my balancer is not in line with the serpentine belt at all. There's a smaller diameter pulley behind the balancer that is actually driving the accessories. The balancer seems to be pressed on to this smaller aluminum pulley.

This don't look like the drawings in my manual. What am I overlooking? And how do I get this mess of the crank hub so I can get to the Opti and maybe get my car running some day?

Thanks!

Finn

 

are you using a 3 jaw puller? douse it in pb blaster, wait a minute, tap it with a hammer then do it again. put the car in gear and have someone step on the brakes. might wanna try a breaker bar too

 

What year you have? 96-97 requires a harmonic balancer pulley puller.

 

I have a 97 and got mine off in about 20 mins time. yes it was a bitch, yes it was a royal pain in my ***, I soaked it with pb blaster. and yes I did seem to somehow wiggle it off with only my hands. just use the push/pull pattern, pull pull pull then push it back on and wiggle it. IT WILL COME OFF...

 

Yeah i lightly tapped mine from behind with a hammer, and it came off fairly easily after some pulling and wiggling.

 

The first time I had to pull it off, I used a 2 jaw puller and that kept falling off. It was a real bitch but it finally came off after a while. After that, I used a 3 jaw puller from Autozone and it came off pretty easily.

 

Thanks for the advice.

Two more questions though...

Is it the balancer that will come off the smaller pulley, or the balancer AND the smaller pulley that will come off the hub?

What is the deal with two pulleys (at least the balancer sure looks like it has pulley capabilities) when only one could possible function on a serpentine set up? My shop manuals and other drawings I've seen show the serp belt going on the balancer, but mine is routed to this smaller diameter pulley behind the balancer.

It's a 1994 F-body.

Thanks again.

Finn

 

Sounds like you have an underdrive crank pulley, hence the 2 pulleys, and it looking nothing like your manual pics. All years 93-97 are the same. It's easier to pull off the whole crank hub and balancer than to remove just the balancer for the simple fact that it is soooo hard to get the balancer to seperate from the hub on an older car. It took me about 10 minutes and an 8lb hammer to get mine to come off, and that was after I had it off the car.

-Shannon

 

The smaller pulley is an aftermarket underdrive pulley. I was confused when i saw two pullies too. i guess the previous owner of the car put it on.

i had to use 2 jaw puller (its all i had). i put the claws on the most outer edge of it. by doing that you run the risk of chipping the edge or even seperating the harmonic balancer(its two pieces). But you really have no choice since you cant get the claws on the innermost edge of the pulley.

 

This has been buggin' me all evening. Seems to me that Nomad is right in just pulling off the the hub and the two pulleys with a standard harmonic balancer puller.

I can't see any reason why this wouldn't work. The three bolts go through the puller, through both pulleys and into the arms on the hub, right? Then twist, twist, twist on the puller and the hub comes off pushing the pulley and balancer along.

I'll try it out and see how it goes.

Thanks for the posts about the underdrive pulley too. That was drivin' me nuts too, but now it makes sense.

Finn

 

You should also mark the relation of the hub and crank.
The only trick to it is to leave the crank bolt screwed in a little bit. Crank puller down on head of crank bolt, pull hub until you feel it tighten up, remove puller, unscrew crank bolt a bit more, repeat until you cannot install crank hub to gain an advantage. This needs to be done due to the crank hub being so small, if you simpley pull the bolt out and dont use it to press on with the puller, it will become hung up on the puller end. Hope you understand what i'm saying
After you get the hub and balancer off, spray it with some wd40, use a correct size socket in the middle of the hub ( recessed portion) and beat on it with a hammer until the hub and balancer separate. I sanded mine down a bit so the fit wasn't so darned tight. Now I can loosen the bolts and tap it with a hammer to remove just the balancer, not the hub.

-Shannon

 

Tried to get ahold of you on your site, forget it can't be done. Anyway bought a 52 from someone else. Not good quality. If you're gonna run a business fix your website.

 

Nothing wrong with my website. My email is also on my profile in case you didn't notice.

I'm not sure what you want from me as you didn't buy it from me. May not even be one of mine.

-Shannon

 

I just did this yesterday... 3 prong puller with a grade 8 bolt (not the same size as the regular hub bolt) in the middle for the puller to push against. By using a bolt that is smaller than the actual thread of that hole you won't mess the threads up because it's putting the pressure on the front of the crank, that's the key to it...

 

Ah, I see, you wanted to buy one from me, but couldn't get ahold of me. I thought you were saying you bought one of mine from somone else and it was poor quality

-Shannon